the Amalekits contrary to GOD's command pretending that he did so For the good purpose of Sacrificeing 1 Sam. 15.21.22 Neither should Books be approven in which Errours are mixed with Verities since evil is through any defect but good from the intire cause So I distinguish this Rule if a Writter having a good design mistake in a few things of no great moment and upon sound Advice will revoke his Errours I grant this should be favourably interpreted but if the Errours be gross and many and the Author boasting of being Divinely inspired in writting them and to have had more Light and Piety then all men in that case I deny that such mistakes should pass uncensured Lastly as to the first of the four Pre-concessions for disputing that we should be well acquainted with what we censure that is a very good Rule and by it the Ap. seems to insult his Opponents that either they did not well know the French Language in which A. B. wrote or had not read all her Twenty two Books So not only the Ap. but likewise all that own A. B. whensoever her Errours are mentioned they answer warmly that whatsoever seemeth hard in some of her Writtings is explained in others which the censurers either have not read or will not be at the pains to compare places together Now to ward of this thrust the Reader shall be judge if I censure any thing of A. Bs. Writtings but what I understand well enough having had sufficient means for it by reading sundry of her writtings and particularly The Light of the World which is held for the chiefest of them all and the standard of all both be herself and Poiret see the admonition prefaced thereto by P. P. p. 36. And now I have read the Ap. which is aequivalent to the reading of all her Books since the Author hath read them all and defends all and if I quarrel nothing but what he mantains it were a frivolous shift to bid me go and search any of A. Bs. Books for any explication of her Opinions And if there be reall Errours and Contradictions found in her writtings what explications can remove them To conclude this Section I shall to the foresaid four add other three rules of arguing and especially anent Points of Divinity 1. To explain the Termes and state the Question aright 2. To reason and answer candidly without Sophistry or Deceit 3. To seek Verity rather than victory and therefore though we may justly commend some good things in any Person or his writtings not to mantain their Errours and Evtravagancies which if through fondness we have failed in upon second thoughts to do so no more SECTION III. If A. B. was Divinely inspired A. THis Question cannot be well resolved untill the Terms thereof be cleared in the first place and the Question be rightly stated according to my first Rule for unless this be done all abrupt disputs turn to a meer Logomachie or a proud and ignorant doting about Questions and strife of words which God expresly forbids 1 Tim. 6.4 Divine Inspiration is taken in very different Senses for First in a large sense every man may be said to be Divinely Inspired because of his Rational Soul which was made after the Image of God Gen. 2.7 God breathed into Mans Nosethirls the Breath of Life and Gods breathing into Man is a Divine Inspiration 2ly One is said to be Divinely Inspired to whom God giveth a capacity Genius or fitness for an Office or Imployment as it is written Judg. 3.10 The Spirit of the Lord came upon Othniel and he judged Israel and went out to Warre so it is a necessary Qualification of a Bishop that he be Apt to teach 1. Tim. 3 2. and the Holy Ghost maketh Bishops Acts 20.28 Yea this is ascribed to men of Manuary Callings as to Bezalcel and with him Aholiab Exod. 31.3 I have filled him with the Spirit of God in Wisdom and in all manner of workmanship for the tabernacle 3ly A Spiritual man judgeth not of Divine things by carnal reason Church Authority only Tradition or Custom but according to the Truth and Minde of God revealed in the Scriptures 1 Cor. 2.14.15 But the Spiritual man judgeth all things c. Job 32.8 The Inspiration of the Almighty giveth man Knowledge Which Apothegme may also be referred to the former sense that God qualifies and fitteth every person whom he commissioneth for any Imployment as to teach others Yea persons unregenerated may have something like to this Orthodoxie as that understanding Scribe who in Conference with the Lord did give the true and Spiritual sense of the Law upon whom it was accordingly pronounced That he was not far from the Kingdom of God Mark 12.34 Yet being at a distance from true Conversion all the knowledge he had was only by the common illumination of the Spirit which and other common gifts of the unconverted whether they differ specifically or gradually only from the saving knowledge and graces of the Godly I shall not here abide to determine 4ly Every Pious Person is led by the Spirit of God both in his Conversion when Gods Spirit enlightneth the Understanding and reneweth their Will and likewise afterwards directing and quickning to all Duty which Light and Grace he bestows in such measures as fitteth the work wherein He in his Infinite Wisdom imployes them as reading the Scriptures Praying Preaching Writting doing of good Works and suffering when called thereto Of this the Holy Spirit is the efficient cause he bids us do well Yet it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.12.13 so 1 John 2.20 Ye have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things And this Illumination is by Divines called Subjective Revelation because of the agreement betwixt our Souls and the Divine assistance and to distinguish it from the pretended Enthusiasm of deluded Persons who boast of new Revelations as the chief Rule of their Faith and Manners And in this sense Luther Zuinglius and other Divines who are cited in Quakerism no Popery from pag. 19. are to be understood when they write that the inward word of God and the dictats of the Holy Spirit are the true word of God which profit unto Salvation which is also the Sense and meaning of the ancient Holy Fathers when they speak of the leading of the Spirit of God as S. Chrys upon John 6.63 Christs words are to be heard according to the Spirit And whoso heareth them after a carnal manner profiteth nothing And S. Cypr. de S. sancto p. 485. edit Par. cum Annot. Ja. Pamel Suspiration Inspiration and Aspiration in the Godly they have from the Holy Spirit the cause and effect Matter and Increase 5ly The Prophets and Penmen of the Holy Scriptures were in a strict sense Divinely inspired 2 Pet. 1.21 They spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2. Tim. 16.17 All Scriptures is given by the Inspiration
of God c. The Prophets and Apostles were without any previous Ratiocination of themselves powerfully moved by God both to Teach and Write the Rule of Faith and Manners and that infallibly both as to Matter and Words which they proved to be immediat Objective Revelation or rather Gods word than their own 1 Thess 2.13 by the gift of Tongues Miracles Oracles Visions discovering of Secrets foretelling things to come and the conversion of men to God beyond and above the ordinary Humane Means The phrase thus explained I come to state and answer the Question to wit if A. B. was Divinely inspired The Ap. spends the third part of his Treatise being 38 leaves aiming to prove that A. B. was led by the Spirit of God or what is the same on the matter divinely inspired but never shewing in what sense or meaning he would have the World believe that she was so and therefore all discoursing to that purpose looks too like a continued Sophism commonly called Ignorantio Elenchi or a Fallacious way of arguing seeming to prove the thing intended by an hudle of pretended Arguments which yet conclude nothing as to the main point under Debate Viz. In what sense or respect he alleadgeth his A. B. to have been Divinely inspired 1. Which now to examine particularly I grant that she was Divinely Inspired in the first of the five respects forementioned i. e. She had a Rational Soul if ever there was such a person as A. B. which some doubt of who lived in Flanders about the time she is said to have been at Lisle and yet heard nothing of her but this is not all which the party means by her being Divinely inspired since she pretends to more than an ordinary Spirit 2. It is more to be doubted if she was divinely inspired in the second sense to wit if she was fitted and well qualified for the condition and imployment that she set out for in the World which was three fold the Mistris of a Familie a School-Mistris and a Prophetess or a Teacher to reform all Mankind There is but little evidence given in her own writtings of he Discretion and far less of Divine inspiration in guiding either her School or Family tho she pretended to the knowledge of discerning Spirits and the very thoughts of peoples hearts Pref. to L. W. p. 41 for she testifieth of her self S. V pt 1. p. 196. how all her 32 Scholars at Lisle were in Actual compact with the Devil and yet did very well what she taught them Also the Ap. writes of her pt 4. p. 323. that all her Servants were Witches and for a long time designed to murder her for her Riches yet mentioneth nothing that ever she dismissed them before her Death And if she had a Prophetical Spirit that shall be tryed anon 3. The third and fourth Respects may be considered together whereanent I charitably think that A. B. was a pious person and so was led by the Spirit of God as any other godly person is Rom. 8.1 But this concession will not satisfie the Ap. who holds her to have been incomparably holy and to have exceeded in knowledge the greatest Divines pt 3. p. 240.241 And therefor her pretension must be tryed in another sense Obj. How can she be called pious who wrote many Errours and was very proud and Uncharitable A. 1. She spake aright of Religion in sundry things which might have been by Divine Conduct but in her Mistakes and Errours she was led by her own spirit Ap. p. 216.217 As she confesseth in another Case when she was deluded by St. Saulien p. 239. And it is probable that she intended not to have written Lies or Fopperies which happened either through her want of the means of true Knowledge or the neglecting thereof as the Reading of the Holy Spriptures and Systems of Divinity and medling with things too high for her Ps 131.1 She might have been Pious tho not pefect and persons ought to be charactered from their better pairt and not from the worst from the set of their Spirit and tract of their Life rather than from particular Actions or Escapes and especially if they endeavour to discover and mortifie all Sins in themselves 2. This Obj. might be easily answered in the opinion of A. B. that Saints may apostatise totally and finally even they who have attained to perfection and could keep all the Commandments of God Which is defended be the Ap. pt 2. p 136. which yet is a gross Errour as shall afterward be shown for according to her Hypothesis it might follow that she wrote only Truth she was Humble and Charitable so long as she continued in the state of Grace but wrote her Errours became Proud and Uncharitable how soon she lost the Grace of God and fell into the estate of Damnation 4. As to the fifth Sense or Consideration of the Conduct of the Spirit of God which is the publick and ordinary acceptation of it namely a Prophetick infallible Spirit This I positively affirm A. B. had not in her writtings and so the Question is answered Negativly in Oposition to the affirmation of A. B. and her Ap. and it is thus proved 1. The Holy Scriptures which were written by the Holy Prophets and Apostles have a self Evidence in them shewing themselves to be the Word of God or the Dictats of the Holy Spirit to wit the matchless Sublimity of the matter the Holiness Purity and Harmony of the whole the Efficacie or effectual working for converting Souls to God besids their confirmation from the Pen-mens speaking of all Languages which they had never heard nor learned and other Miracles accompanying them extraordinary Visions sure Prophecies the Antiquity and preservation of the samen and the Confession of Adversaries But A. Bs. writtings have nothing the like Confirmation and therefore she had no Divine Inspiration in writting them The Major is granted by all Christians and the Minor is also clear since neither A. B. nor her Ap. pretend to such Testimonys tho their pretence be very high 2. The Scriptures written be men Divinely inspired are a perfect Rule in Religion teaching us how to glorifie God and be saved our selves 2 Tim. 3 16.17 That the man of God may be prrfect And we are to hold them accursed who would add to this Canon Gal. 1.8 Rev. 22 18. Therefore A. B. dare not pretend to such inspiration under pain of the curse Obj. You have wronged A. B. by mistateing the Question for she did not pretend to Prophecie or to write by an Infallible Spirit as the Prophets and Apostles did but only to interpret the Scriptures to live well and to teach others to do so L W. pt 1. p. 133. There she promiseth to write a Commentary upon the whole Scriptures tho she never performed it A. First denying the Charge for she is not wronged by me nor the Question mistated since it is the ordinary and received Sense of the Phrase to be
Image of GOD Knowledge and Holiness and be cemented one with another in love but from this no Scripture language nor any Christian Commentator neither any wise man did ever infer that men should be called GOD Unless he would vouch the Manichees for his Authors who were vile Hereticks and held that there were two Gods one good and another evil they indeed taught That the Soul of man was of the substance of GOD As did other blasphemous Hereticks to wit Cerdonians Marcionites and Priscillianists which we have faithfully accounted by a most trustie and diligent antiquary Forbes of Corse in his Instr hist Theol. Li. 4. C. 5. N. 12. Citing also the Orthodox who refuted them Namely St. Ambrose Aug. Theodoret c. And how can the unlearned Readers of A. Bs. writtings distinguish her Opinion from theirs in this prime and essential part of Religion Likewise A. B. denyes GOD'S Attribute of Omniscience tho to deny any of his Attributes be to deny GOD himself when she taught that GOD doth not foresee all future Actions of a free agent which is defended by the Ap. pt 2. p. 127. 128. 129. This is contrary to the Scriptures John 21.17 LORD thou knowest all things Psalm 139.2 Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising thou understandest my thought a far off Are not these the Actions of a free Agent Moreover A. B. denyes the Justice of GOD which she learned from the pestiferous Socinus L. de Serv. p. 1. C. 1. c. Where he Sophistically argues because GOD is Love 1. John 4 8 Therefore there is no vindicative Justice in him which is defended by the Ap. pt 1. p. 22 where he affirms that the Scriptures which speak of GOD'S Justice and displeasure in threatning and punishing of sin are to be understood as these which attribute humane parts and passions to him All this contradicts the Scriptures which teach that hatred of sin and vindicative Justice are of the nature of GOD as he is Simple Pure Holy and Righteous even as Love and Mercy are of his Nature and Essence as He is good Habb 1.13 HE is of purer Eyes than to behold Evil and cannot look upon Iniquity GOD hath no parts at all nor passions and when they are ascribed to Him in the Scriptures such as Love Anger Hatred c. It is spoken by Us not for the infirmity of affections but for some likeness of His works and ours as St. Aug. wordeth it De Civ D. L. 9. C. 5. And the effect hath produced the word Revenge which truth of the vindicative Justice of GOD is clearly vindicated from all the Objections of Socinus by John Owen Diatr de Just Div. where he proveth that the application or exercise of GOD's essential Justice is to be understood when he punisheth sin as our soveraign LORD and Judge and likewise he removeth the mistakes of Rutherford and Twisse thereanent and the satisfaction of CHRIST wherein yet they were not of the mind of A. B. and the Socinians Then for the Blessed Trinity in the GOD-Head Head her Doctrine is plainly Heretical writting that it is a Romish Errour to say there are three Persons in the GOD-HEAD that there are in Him only three Powers Attributes or Properties of Truth Righteousness and Goodness and that her self had these three Properties L. W. pt 2 p. 109 and pt 3. p. 166 Lavie continue p. 553 554 L. W. pt 3 p. 80 Ap. pt 2 p. 84 85. These Sentiments so called by the Ap. are contrary to the Essentials of Religion to the Creed and to the constant Doctrine of the Catholick Church See some of many Scriptures 1 John 5.7 There are three that bear record in Heaven the FATHER the WORD and the HOLY GHOST and these three are One. Heb. 1 3. CHRIST is the express Image of His FATHERS Person see also how the Trinity was manifested at Christs Baptism Mat 3 16 17. The Father speaking from Heaven the Son present in Person and the Holy Ghost by a Dove So Preaching and Baptising are enjoined in the express naming of the Trinity or three Persons Mat 28 19. And thus the blessing is still pronounced 2 Cor 13 14. The Primitive Church still condemned all Antitrinitarians for Hereticks and particularly Sabellius and Samosatenus were accursed by the great Council of Nice Anno 325 Theodoret Eccl. hist L. 5. c. 9. Epiph. haer 6. For the very Doctrine now revived by A. B. That there were not three Persons but three Names and three Powers in the GOD-HEAD Whereas to exclude all Hereticks and to mantain the Unity of Faith in the Catholick Church it was expressed in all the approven Creeds which are Exegetick or Explicatory of the Apostles Creed To wit the Creeds of the Councills of Antioch Nice and Constantinople and of St. Athanasius That there are in the GOD-HEAD three Persons or Subsistencies having Incommunicable Personal Properties the Father begetting the Son the Son begotten and the Holy Ghost proceeding from them both three in One and One in three undivided in Essence or Substance with much more which is to be seen in them to this purpose So that it is evident A. Bs. Doctrine is inconsistent with the Scriptures and many Articles of the Creed NUMBER II. Of CHRIST and His Satisfaction for Us. IT is worthy the noticeing in the first place anent this foundation of Religion that A. B. in all her Books never once giveth CHRIST his due Tittles as it is in the Creed His only SON Our LORD or the LORD 1 Cor. 11 23. The Ap is guilty of the same omission till p 406. Some approver of A. B. in a Letter to the Ap. doth it And no marvel that they shift to speak of Christs Divinity since they write that He had a sinful Nature corrupt and rebellious to the Superiour part of His Soul produceing inclinations and temptations to sin though He consented not thereto S. V. pt 1 p 198. Ap pt 2 from p 198 to 143. This contradicteth the Holy Scriptures which shew clearly that he took to Himself our Nature but without sin which could not have been if any sin had been in His Nature for the very first motions or inclinations in Us to sin which School-Men call Primo-primi they are sins because of our sinful Nature even before we deliberatly consent thereto Jam 1 15. Lust when it is conceived bringeth forth sin Gen 6.5 Every Imagination of the thoughts of Mans Heart is only evil continually Whereas it was impossible that the Lord Jesus Christ could have had a sinful Nature otherwise the Divinity which is Holiness and Purity it self could not have been Hypostatically united to his Humane Nature neither could the Holy One Immanuel GOD with us have any inclination or temptation to sin in his Nature or proceeding from any thing in Himself as the Scriptures teach us 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made sin for us who knew no sin Heb. 4.15 He was in all Points tempted like as we are yet
by faith in Christ whereas it is manifest by the Scriptures alreadie cited and many more which could be shown that Christs suffering in our stead and thereby procuring to us remission of sin and freedom from the Punishment due to us therefore is a most true and Divine substitution and not false and Diabolical as A. B. saith 2 Cor. 5.19 GOD in Christ reconcileth the World to himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and not to impute to us our trespasses is to procure a discharge of the samen A wise man should not be ridicul'd for his wisdom but this is the wisest Course that a sinner can take to confess his own frailty and believe to be saved by the free Mercy of GOD for the sake of Christs Merits We do not deny a substitution of love as he calls it that of GOD'S free love in Christ Jesus whereby we are both Justified and Sanctified but neither Penitence nor any other Grace bestowed upon us can be called our Merit nor can there be any addition made to the Sacrifice of Christ which satisfied the Justice of GOD and is the only meritorious cause of our Justification The Ap. insists saying that we carp at the words Merit and Satisfaction while we grant the thing imported thereby that Christ by his Merits hath procured to us to do penitence and to imitat himself without which non can be saved by faith in Him This is the substance of all his suppositions or imperfect sort of Argument in the foresaid place which in the Schools is called a Sorites To which I answer briefly that the Orthodox have good reason to quarrel both at the words and the thing which he understands thereby for it is simply impossible that sinners can either satisfie the Justice of GOD or merit their own Salvation because there is no commutative Justice betwixt GOD and Man as there is in Contracts between man and man so that it were injustice not to remit sin upon all the penitence or good works that we can do He being infinitly Holy and we but frail Creatures who at the best are but Unprofitable Servants Luke 17.10 We ought indeed to evidence our Faith by a good life but to call our penitence or love to GOD or imitation of Christ our own merit is but a vain gloriation and derogatory from the satisfactory Merits of Christ for which I remit him to Bellarmin who is a great Orator for humane merits but confesseth that for the uncertainty of our own Righteousness and the danger of vain Glory it is most safe to place our whole confidence in GOD'S Mercy alone and his Goodness and a few lines after he sayes that without a Revelation no man can know assuredly himself to have true Merits or that he shall persevere in them to the end Likewise because nothing is more easie in this place of tentation than pride to arise from the consideration of good works R. Bell. Card. Jesu de Justi L. 5. c. 7. p. 1266 in 80. SECTION IV. SUBS. I. N. III. Of Mans future State IN the Seventh and two last Articles of the Apostles Creed sundry great Truths are included anent Mans future State which are clearly taught in the Scriptures and are of the essentials of Religion namely that after Death neither Soul nor Body perish but they shall be joined again by the power of GOD through Jesus Christ at the Generall Resurrection and set day of Judgment when He shall pronounce a righteous Sentence upon all Mankind giving unto those who have done well Eternal Life in Heaven and to the wicked Eâ—nal Damnation But A. B. makes a ludicrous Scene of all this writting that the World shall not be consumed by fire there shall be no judgment after Death nor a set and appointed day of Judgment nor any other sort of judgment than what is begun thirty Years agoe that good People shall not goe to Heaven but Christ coming with men and not with Angels shall dwell with them visibly for ever on Earth where they shall propagate their kinde Eternally being retired into a safe Corner of the Earth or rather to the Centre of their Soul to live in all pleasure and the Wicked to another Corner of it to be afflicted by Serpents and all evil things And she believes all this better than all the other Mysteries of our Faith L. W. pt 1. from p. 143. to 148. and from 150. to 159. and from 168. to 170. and pt 2. p. 131. 132. and pt 3. p. 146. And all the foresaid Heretical rapsodie is approved be the Ap. pt 2. p. 180. to 184. the Mysteries of Faith which she doth not so well believe as these her own whimsies are the Unity and Trinity in GOD the Incarnation and Satisfaction of Christ the efficacie of Grace with the free will of Man the Resurrection of the Dead the Day of Judgement and Mens then being mandated to Heaven or Hell These Opinions of A. B. are worse than the Old Millenarâ—â— who yet were still condemned by the Orthodox and Catholick Church which held that the Scriptures in no place promised Christs dwelling on Earth Bodily again but rather the contrary as Acts 3.21 Tit. 1.2 GOD that cannot lie hath in his Holy word assured us of the Truths which I have rehearsed on this head which also demonstrates the falsitie of A. Bs. Tenets lastly repeated John 5.28.29 The hour is comming in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear His Voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of damnation Heb. 9.27 It is appointed unto men once to die but after this the Judgment Acts 17.31 He hath appointed a Day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained 1 Cor. 15.15.16 For if the Dead rise not then is not Christ raised and if Christ be not raised your Faith is vain 2 Pet. 3.12 Hasting to the coming of the Day of God wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat there are many parallel places of Scriptures as John 14.3 Mat. 25.46 1 Thes 4.16 The Sophistical shifts that are made be A. B. and her Ap. in the fore cited places for excusing their Errours shall be easily discussed Obj. 1. First Heaven is where GOD is therefore when Christ reigns with his Saints on Earth there needs no other Heaven A. It s answered neither GOD 'S essential Immensity nor His diffused Grace takes away the nature of things or confounds distinct places so Heaven is still His Thron and the place of the Blessed and the Earth his Foot Stool Obj. 2. If Christ doe not reign with His Saints Eternally on Earth then the Earth was made only for Wicked Men and Devils A. The Earth was made for GODS People who serve Him on it now in the Land of the living tho imperfectly but
like that a Preacher wrote the Ap. for else he had not accused all others of dryness 3. As the pretended inspired A. B. is most vain glorious that she only had discovered the Love of GOD to be the great end of Religion so is she no less proud of the means that she had attained to obtain it namely such a penitence and self denyall as merited remission of sins and which should be added to the Sacrifice of Christ Lae. Temoing de verite pt 1.59.61.64 and Ap. pt 2. p. 91.99 But we have not so learned Christ Rom. 6.23 Pardon of sin and eternal Life are none of our merit but GOD 'S free Gifts procured by Christs merits Eph. 2.8 whereof possibly more afterwards 4. You have hitherto narrated such instances as convince my self of her ignorance in the main point of Religion whereto a fourth shall be added which probably will abait the fondness of her admirers if it doth not altogether break her party if they consider it aright who noticed not before what doctrine she taught and that is that every good Christian must abandon Riches and Honour and take no more of them but what is simply needful for the sustenance of Nature and that of the least and meanest sort for the strain of the Doctrine which her Party cryeth up runeth thus A good Christian seeks to attain to the Love of GOD in perfection which to do we must renounce self love and love of the Creatures and none can doe that but they who renounce Riches and take meat and cloathing only to sustain Nature S. V. pt 1. p. 58. 59. L. W. pt 1. p. 121. Ap pt 1. p. 66. 67. Now let all that have doted upon Borignianism prove themselves to be her true Proselites by this plat form of her levelling which ere they doe I am of Opinion she will have but a very small Train of either Sex As Henry Martin said in the Rump Parliament in England when it was proposed to purge it quite of Immoral Men purge it also said Martin of all Knaves and Fools and then we shall have but a thin House NUMBER V. Of the Holy Scriptures IT is doubtless of the Essence of Religion to have right Sentiments of the Holy Scriptures which are the word of GOD and the Rule of Religion But many of A. Bs. and the Aps. Sentiments are wrong in this matter for First she perverts most of the Texts which are cited in her Books whereof one pregnant instance is already shown anent Gen. 3.15 N. 2. another is of Mat 5.45 He maketh his Sun to shine on the Evil and on the Good from which A. B. inferreth that the Wicked have the true Grace of GOD L. W. pt 1. p. 43. whereas the words import only that Worldly things such as the Suns light are common both to good and evil People 2ly They derogate from the Authority of the Holy Scriptures which is altogether Divine and Infallible the Ap. pt 2. p. 179 Approves Teresa a Spainard a pretended inspired Teacher who when she was urged with that Text 1 Tim. 2.12 I suffer not a Woman to Teach did answer that GOD bid her not to be directed by one passage of Scripture for there was a twofold falsehood if not rather a lie in the answer of Terese for there is a parallel Text to the foresaid purpose 1 Cor. 14.34 And GOD bids us be directed by his Word as well as when it is found in one passage of Scripture as if it were in twenty so it was the Devil and not GOD that suggested such an answer to her As Tertul long since wrote that all Hereticks Strive to derogate from the Scriptures and whosoever doth deprave any part of the Scriptures he rejects all because they are all from the same Authority Adversus Heres de prescrip c. 49. 3ly They disregard and contemn the Holy Scriptures Diod. Sic. L. 14. reports that Theopompus a Pagan Historian when he had inserted some part of the Holy Scriptures into his prophane writtings did run mad I shall not say that A. B. was mad but probably she was Hypocondriack for writting as she did anent the Scriptures exhorting people to imitat herself in not reading the New Testament for twenty Years and affirming that she could write such a Book as it that it was not hitherto understood by any and only slightly allowing people to read the BIBLE that are not otherwayes taught S. V. pt 1. p. 120. Ap. p. 347. L. W. pt 1. p. 120. Whereas the Holy Spirit teacheth us to search the Scriptures daily Acts 17.11 The truely Divinely Inspired take their warrand from the Scriptures 2 Pet. 1.19 Though they were immediatly taught of God And it was a thing more impossible for A. B. for to write such a Book as the New Testament than to have joined the land of Flanders to England for she could have written such a Book either by a fallible or an infallible Spirit if by a fallible Spirit only then it could not have been such a Book which was written by men infallibly inspired and not by an infallible Spirit because she had it not as is proven Sect. 3. Hence may be espyed a piece of very goodly confidence in the Ap. pt 2. p. 179. affirming that none could vilifie A. Bs. way of handling Scriptures but they who have a secret disgust at it whereas on the contrary out of love to the Scripture I openly disgust her abusing it NUMBER VI. Miscellanies relating to the Essentials of Religion THere are many other heads of Doctrine nearly relating to the Essentials of Religion ill treated of in the writings of the Authors whom I deal with and abruptly brought in by them without any Logical order some of which shall be noticed in this last Number together as they have occurred to my observation in seven distinct points that this Subsection concerning A. Bs. Essentials may terminate in a certain method POINT I. Of GOD'S Decrees and the Doctrines depending thereupon AS A. B. hath not written right things of GOD about the Essentials of Religion so nor of the integrals thereof though there be sundry of the samen which have so near a relation to and connection with the Essentials that by sound Divines they are truely called Circa Fundamentals For her Tenets anent the high and mysterious Decrees of GOD and many Doctrines depending thereupon such as the Operation of Divine Grace upon the Will of Man and the Perseverance of the Saints they are in my Judgement both contrary to the express Letter of the Holy Scriptures and the interpretation thereof by the Orthodox Church For she frequently affirms in the general that GOD had no Eternal Decrees nor praescience of the Actions of free Agents and in special that He had no Eternal Decree of Predestination L. W. pt 3. p. 154. which is contrary to Psal 33.11 The Counsel of the Lord standeth for ever the thoughts of His Heart to all Generations Acts 15.18 Known unto GOD